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QUESTIONS FOR HASBRO - round 89, pt 2

Please post your VOTE for up to 2 {two} of the questions provided in this thread, letting us know which ones you most want to see asked on April 29th. Keep in mind that your votes in round 89 pt 1 do not count in this round, so if your question is still on the list you may want to vote for it again.

Again, APRIL 29th is the deadline on this round! That's THIS FRIDAY! We will be sending in questions at the end of Thursday, so be advised, vote now!

Also, feel free to suggest new questions, but please keep in mind that due to the now extra-limited nature of the program, we cannot use every suggestion.

Current questions (vote for up to 2):

- Force FX has entered a new phase with the removable blade series, and so far we've seen the first couple waves. Thanks to Clone Wars, female characters are back on the rise in Star Wars and bringing in more female collectors - Ahsoka especially has been selling very well. What does the future of Force FX look like? What are the chances of Ahsoka's lightsaber being added to the Force FX line, better opening that market up to female consumers and getting Clone Wars main character recognizability?

- You have this nice new Qui-Gon Jinn figure that came out in the Jedi Evolution set, and has been re-released in the nifty Eopie mail-away set, yet both times the figure has been marred by including the blobby 1999 lightsaber accessory. Luke Jedi keeps coming out with either repaints of the ROTS Obi-Wan's lightsabers (which has different details), or worse, the blobby Obi-Wan POTJ saber from 2000. Both the '99 Qui-Gon and '00 Obi-Wan as Luke Jedi sabers also have the old smooth blade design without the flare on top of their soft hilt sculpting, and both Qui-Gon and Luke Jedi actually had better saber accessories designed during the Saga line, yet we never get them. And what about one of the most iconic lightsabers in recent SW memory, Darth Maul? There is no modern-quality version at all, the closest is the '02 Saga metal hilt with removable blades, but the blades break easily, so we haven't seen it in a while, and it's a bit long. We don't have a deactivated one to hang on a belt, don't have a 1-blade-activated version, don't have a "cut in half" version, Maul is pretty lacking for his weapon. Why are we getting old junky saber accessories with the modern versions of these guys? Why aren't we seeing better, more accurate lightsaber accessories for some of these fairly major, recognizable Jedi characters? And will these issues be addressed soon?

- Vader's TIE Advanced X1 has been using the same POTF2 mold for over 13 years now, and the design is showing its age. The cockpit hatch is all wrong, the window is too small, the implementation of action gimmicks hurts the movie-accuracy and just aren't that fun, the cockpit isn't terribly accurate or sized that well to modern Vader figures, and the color is the blue-gray color of ESB and ROTJ rather than the proper gray color of ANH - the only film it was in. This is Vader's signature vehicle, it should at least live up to the quality of the other vehicles in the line, much less represent one of the brand's top characters - especially since the Hasbro SW team's vehicle designs have been so good lately too. What are the chances of seeing something done to address those issues on Vader's TIE Advanced X1 in the foreseeable future?

- A few years ago, we asked about the chance for updating the role-play Han Solo Blaster and Stormtrooper Blaster accessories, and your response was a not at that time because they weren't supported by then-current entertainment. The existing role-play Stormtrooper and Han blasters are molds from the late '70s, now technically 5 decades old. While they do have some pretty decent design for items from that era, compared to Hasbro's newer role-play blasters, they come up a bit lacking in accuracy and features. We don't expect all-black movie accuracy due to safety concerns, but on those 2, the seams are a bit uncomfortable to hold, the lights and sounds don't deliver all that effectively and don't rapid-fire nicely; and on the Stormtrooper blaster, the stock is still missing in action, and there's never been a clip. With ANH being re-released next year on Blu-Ray, and in theaters in a few years, it seems like there are going to be opportunities to deliver updated versions of those 2 iconic blasters in the role-play lineup, so is there any chance of seeing that happen?

- We understand the need to anchor the Vintage line with core characters in order to preserve the longevity of the toy line, but what about at least changing up the cardback images to give the longtime collectors something to get excited about? For instance, we know we don't have to twist your arm very hard to get you to rerelease a Darth Vader figure; but would you consider repacking the current TVC figure on a Star Wars card or, even better, on a ROTJ card with a Sebastian Shaw 'Vader Unmasked' reference photo (the figure could be packed in the bubble with his helmet off)? We know you're doing this with the Luke Jedi figure, but that's more a case of expressing the right version of the character to match that figure; this would serve the dual purpose of keeping the core characters in circulation for the casual collectors while giving the hardcore collectors something else to look forward to. Package variations existed back in the original line with different backs, and under different movie lines, and a few even had different pictures, so there is classic justification for it.

- With themed waves going away, what will be the general method for planning new waves? It used to be a school of thought that said "1 army builder, 1 alien, 1 main character" et cetera, but that was when the choices for that wave were merely from a single movie scene rather than the entirety of Star Wars. What aspects will upcoming wave planning keep from the last 3 years, and what will change?

- Sgt. Bric's initial cartoon outing turned out to be kind of a bust. The character was an unmemorable jerk and didn't really add anything to his storyline. In fact, if not for the action figure you guys did, he'd be a complete nobody in 2010. And on top of that, the postage on his set when it arrived in Los Angeles was a whopping $5.15, so after the cost of the box and the handling, just getting it out the door probably ate the entire $6.99 right there. Combine that with the fancy packaging and the battle mat, and the fact that he's 100% new tooling with some pricey-looking (for CW) paint, and it seems like Bric's quite an expensive promotional venture for Hasbro to have undertaken... all for a minor jerk of a character. What is it about Bric that made you choose him for a big Clone Wars mail-away promo figure?

- The new R5-D4 figure does not have the painted red panels on his back. That might sound like a minor issue, but the panels are clearly visible in the film when the droid's motivator blows up, and they help give the little guy a bit more visual pop. Neither the 1996 nor the 2006 versions of R5-D4 had these painted either, so it's disappointing to see that the third time is not the charm (though it remains a detail that the original vintage figure got right). Given the number of running changes we've seen so far in The Vintage Collection, is it at all possible that this oversight might be changed on future shipments?

- The Force FX lightsabers are targeted at adult collectibles, for a group who generally desire accuracy in their prop collectibles, and yet the latest ROTS Obi-Wan's lightsaber with removable blade suffers a big inaccuracy due to the blade needing to be securely anchored. However, with your removable-blade designs, you've started using dummy parts to fill in the removed blades, and we wonder if you'd consider for future thin-necked lightsabers like Luke ROTJ and Obi-Wan having the removable blade take the entire thick "neck" with it and having a more accurate thin-necked dummy design replace it. That much weight anchoring has been accomplished before in the thick metal coupler for the Maul saber halves that screwed together, on these thin-neck sabers the neck could screw down to the top part of the grip. That would let collectors have their cake and eat it too by giving an accurate hilt prop display with the thin neck, while still having the light-up blade play using the thick neck. So has there been any consideration for that sort of thing, and might it be seen in future Force FX sabers when needed?

- In several instances now, when asked about the new Slave I getting an ESB release, the response is that it largely depends on how the current Clone Wars version does at retail. If the decision to release it this way is based off sales, why release this as a $100 set with a few re-released figures, and a vehicle repaint that wasn't really hotly requested? If this CW set does sell, does that suggest an ESB release would get a similar Ultimate Battle Pack treatment with the release of some new figures like Bespin Guards and an existing vehicle like the Cloud Car? If that's not likely in store for an ESB Slave I, why predicate that release on this one when it has a different pricepoint, market, and really a different business model altogether? Why release the CW one in this ultimate battle pack format, was this vehicle originally planned for the now-defunct $60 Deluxe Vehicle line and repurposed, was this always the plan for it, or if not, how did this come about this way?

- Given previous answers from Hasbro that a Cane Adiss figure was not off the table, and then the character showing 10th in the most recent Fans Choice poll, it certainly seems like eventually we'll probably get a Cane Adiss figure at some point down the road. With that in mind, has the Hasbro Star Wars team given any thought to how Cane, the largest character in the Fans Choice poll, could be realized as a product since he undoubtedly wouldn't fit on the current basic card - would it be a battle pack, a mail-away, an exclusive for Toys R Us (a good tie-in to the giraffe-themed retailer)? And has there been any discussion on a "whole creature" design for Adiss similarly to how the team extrapolated a fully-realized design for aliens like Dice Ibegon that were only prop puppet heads? Obviously we're not expecting Lucasfilm approval on any ideas you guys might have yet, but preliminarily, what does the Hasbro team feel a Cane Adiss figure would look like?

My apologies to everybody for having to cut the votes from round 89 by starting this "part 2" thing. After 6 months of not knowing what the future of Q&A was, to find out that we've lost a whole site we're participating with, and we have 5 days to get new questions in, it just seemed the best thing to do at this point for everybody who cares about Hasbro Q&A.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

It really pains me to not vote for #11, but I'm interested to see how they react to the idea of updating Vader's TIE.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis